Exposition

Among several other things, human beings are social beings. To be a successful social member of human society, you must be able to develop your social capabilities in order to interact meaningfully in your society. Social competence describes your effectiveness and ability to establish and maintain a high quality of mentally satisfying relationships with others. Social competence has been conceptualised as consisting of six categories of competence: Adoption of social values, development of a sense of personal identity, acquisition of interpersonal skills, learning how to regulate personal behaviour in accord with societal expectations, planning and decision-making, and development of cultural competence.

As a student, your educational environment presents you with a lot of opportunities to develop your social competence. For instance, you interact with people of different age groups, gender, ethnicity, etc. in your academic environment. You must take this opportunity, as Apostle Paul admonishes, to learn to live in peace with all sorts of people and establish a meaningful relationship with them.

As a young person, you must also learn how to act courteously towards the elderly, how to treat the opposite sex with respect and also how to behave in public. No matter how spiritual you are, you cannot have any good influence on the people who come your way if your social life is poor. The good news is that, as with many life skills, social skills can be taught, learnt and refined as you are exposed to some life experiences.